3 Surefire Ways to Make Sure Your Advertising Doesn’t Work

3 Surefire Ways to Make Sure Your Advertising Doesn’t Work

Last week, subscribers to my Sound ADvice newsletter received this in their inbox:

Here are a few tried-and-true ways to waste your advertising dollars.

1. “Let’s try it for a few weeks and see if it works.”

That strategy might work for a limited-time sale or a hiring blitz – if you’re running 8 to 12 ads daily. But if you’re hoping to build a brand people remember when they need you, customer loyalty, or long-term growth? That takes time and consistency.

Brand-building is a slow burn. It usually takes a few months before you start seeing traction. You can’t plant a seed today and then yell at it tomorrow because it’s not a tree yet.

2. “Just give us a straightforward ad with the facts.”

That might seem like a safe route, but unless you have zero competition, it won’t work. A “just the facts” ad tells people what you do… but not why they should choose you instead of someone else. There’s no “why I should give a hoot” in a fact-based ad that sounds like you’re reading a Wikipedia page.

3. Obsessing over targeting instead of messaging.

Demographics are helpful sometimes, to a point. A very small one. And it definitely isn’t what makes advertising work. You’d be surprised at who becomes your customer when you stop narrowing your audience and start telling anyone who will listen.

At the end of the day, the message is King. “What you say” should be obsessed over, not whether you’re targeting 34-year-old mothers who may or may not own a luxury SUV. A well-crafted ad that resonates emotionally to a broad audience will outperform a hyper-targeted, forgettable one… every time!

If you’d like to see 3 ways to make your advertising WORK, click here.

Today, I’m going to expand on those three points:

You want to try it for a few weeks and see if it works? Nearly every successful business advertising campaign I do is set up as an annual, 12 month campaign.  However there are a couple of exceptions to an annual…

If you want to get the word out about an event that has a specific date and then it’s over, it only makes sense for the campaign to end when the event ends.  I’m working with a non-profit organization that is using our radio station to invite people to their charity fund-raising event in August.  All the ads will air during the weeks and days leading up to the event and then they will stop.

On the other hand, if you are a business or organization that operates year round, then you need to invite people year round. By doing this, you are building your business brand and reputation in a way that creates momentum as more and more potential customers become familiar with you so when THEY need what you offer, your company is on their short list for consideration to purchase.

Straightforward ad with just the facts or more creative? It’s not really the right question.  I’ve done plenty of creative campaigns and also plenty of straight voice campaigns and it all depends on the situation.  Having worked around creative designers and copywriters I know that some of them are more in love with the process than the results that their creative is supposed to produce.  I appreciate the passion, but it’s not always appropriate to obsess about fonts and colors.  Your website needs to be fully functional and your ads need to connect with the humans that will receive them.  In my world of news talk radio, the voice and message can be very powerful.

Reaching the RIGHT audience or Having the RIGHT message?  Actually both are important but the obsession with ONLY serving ads to a very specific audience is needlessly limiting. I’ve worked in both online media and traditional and the danger of overtargeting is real.  A deep dive into the analytics for some of the digital campaigns I used to run for clients showed the flaws and in hindsight, it wasn’t the best choice when compared to some more general targeting.  Radio stations like mine attract listeners with different characteristics so you really can target using traditional media when you get the kind of insight and advice someone like me can share with you.

And yes, the message needs to be appropriate for the results you are looking for too.

Want help on any of this?  Contact me.

The Danger of Relying on Facebook

The Danger of Relying on Facebook

Last Tuesday, the world freaked out because of a glitch in the internet.

Specifically Facebook’s parent company Meta, and most of their affiliated social and internet related sites and features became inoperable starting around 10am eastern time.

I am actually writing this on Tuesday March 5th, two hours later and it’s still down on laptops, but currently working on my phone via the app.

The ramifications for the ordinary, everyday user is just an inconvenience.  I can live without Facebook, Instagram, Threads even though I post daily, it’s not like a primary source of marketing or making money for me personally.

However, for others, this kind of thing is costly.  Imagine not being able to do business because people could not reach you.  It will be interesting to see if there will be an estimate of the millions of dollars lost due to the Meta platforms being down for a few hours.  Considering the size of Facebook alone, I imagine over a billion dollars in lost revenue.  

I pulled some numbers from the website, The Social Sheperd that say there are over 3 Billion monthly Facebook users world-wide. 2 Billion people are on Facebook daily.  In the United States, over half the population has a Facebook account and 7 out of 10 Americans who use the internet are on Facebook too.   I have a couple of coworkers that fall into the category of internet users but not on Facebook.

From a business standpoint, I had a client a few years ago that lost at least a weeks worth of revenue what Facebook decided to shut down his business account.  He was spending $20,000 a month just on Facebook ads and getting a 4 to 1 return.  Fortunately he was able to scramble and rebrand his business and build it up again with money he had saved up, but many business people that place such a heavy emphasis on marketing platforms they can’t control are stuck when that platform fails like Facebook did

My advice has always been to create your own spot on the web, something you own.  Your own website, not just a social media page.  I know it’s tempting to just rely on the easy way but if it’s also a lazy way, you could be sunk.

One more success story to share with you, and this is about an HVAC company that has been around for 10 years without a website or social media.  I met with the owner recently because he is looking to invite WOWO radio listeners to become his customers.  I asked him the secret to his successful growth over the past decade without the usual online presence and it came down to having good relationships with a few key people in town that have kept him and his company busy.  The good old fashioned trusted word of mouth that you earn when you run your business right.

Now in order to invite our listeners to become his customers, he’s going to invest in a basic website which we can direct listeners to and will give his company credibility to those that don’t know him yet.

What about you?  Are you needing some guidance and help on how to market your business?  Contact me and let’s talk.

Own Your Space

Own Your Space

Here we are in the summer of 2022 and due to some recent business meetings I’ve had, I need to give you a piece of advice that I’ve said repeatedly over the years.

Own Your Space.

Not just any space, but your space online.

This applies to you as a person and if you have a business.

A dozen years ago, I was showing college students how I created my own personal brand, the ScLoHo brand with a couple of blogs that I updated every single day.

Then 11 years ago, my friend Kevin challenged me to create my own space, not for the ScLoHo brand, for me, Scott Howard.

And so I did.  It took a few months but I invested in my own website instead of using the free blogger sites from Google.  This is that website I created in 2011.

It looks much different than the first version.  The domain name, ScottHoward.me, was selected because the dot com version of my name was already taken.  So while the layout and design have evolved over the years, this website has been consistently been the Space I Own.

Recently I’ve seen business start-ups that don’t have their own website, they are relying on socials.  You don’t have a real business, you’ve got a hobby.  Until you spend a few hundred bucks, buy a domain and create a simple landing page, at the bare minimum, you aren’t real.

Not in today’s world at least.  Look, you don’t even have to use it to run your business, but if your own website doesn’t exist, neither does your business as legit.

I’m not into building websites anymore, but I can connect you with the people I trust.  Believe me, I want you to succeed, and there are always a few exceptions to most any rule, but do yourself a favor and get Your Own Space now, for your business and also for your own personal branding.

Are You Missing?

Are You Missing?

A decade ago, I took a break from working in radio to work full-time for a website development firm that had some cutting edge technology back in 2011.

My job was to find companies that needed website upgrades and introduce them to our platform so we could bring them into what was then the current version of the internet age.

A new website could cost $20,000 for a simple landing page up to well over 100 grand for an eCommerce site.

These days, you can hire a professional to build you nearly anything you need for under $50,000.  I have a few connections that I trust to do the work for a tenth of that, depending on what your needs are.

Yet, I am amazed at the number of businesses that are missing online.

What do I mean by missing?

Well first off, I should be able to find you with a simple Google Search for your business name.

Google tries to be your friend by providing businesses with free listings so that when I am looking for you, I can find you.

And by find, I mean find your website, your location including directions, your phone number and whatever else would be appropriate.

Yet there are still too many businesses that seem to be ignoring the internet because they don’t show up when I Google them.

Similar circumstances with Facebook.  Too many of you don’t exist.

Now I’m not a tech wizard nor am I a web designer, or even an expert in Search Engine Optimization anymore.  Consider me your average potential customer who is just looking to connect with you or one of your competitors because I have a question that requires your expertise.   Or maybe I have money to spend right now and I just need to connect with you and give you my money in exchange for the product or service you provide.

But you are missing when I ask my phone to find you, or my laptop to send me to your website.

To me, I find this shocking, that a business is still invisible online.

This violates one of the very basics of marketing.  You need to be able to be found.

Stop ignoring this and either pay someone or do it yourself, but create a way for people like me to find you online.

Also, if you have not updated your website, or updated your social media this year, (or longer)… do it.  Our whole world has gone through numerous changes since the pandemic began over 18 months ago and I’m sure your business has too.  Update your hours, and other policies we need to know and want to know.  Even if it’s back to business as usual, tell us that too.

One more tip and this is for you as an individual:

Don’t be missing online personally.  You don’t have to create your own website like I did years ago, but you might want to.  At the very least, get on social media.  Create a LinkedIn profile, Go ahead and  get on Facebook.  Those two are the most important for adults who want to be found.

Sure, you can also use Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and others but don’t ignore Facebook and LinkedIn because those are the two primary social media channels still for grown-ups.

Are you missing?

If you are, what are you missing?

And are you going to do something about it?

P.S.

Everything you just read I wrote on Sunday 10/3/21 and used as the script for this weeks podcast.

Then the next day, Monday 10/4/21 Facebook.com goes down.  I mean for several hours, you cannot connect to Facebook and some of their other holdings like Instagram.  Does this mean that you should NOT use Facebook?

No, it just means you should not use Facebook exclusively.  As I am writing this on Monday afternoon and Facebook is still down, I have full confidence in Facebook coming back online.  This is just an unfortunate hiccup that will cost them some money in lost revenue.  However, for the businesses that only rely on Facebook or Instagram to be found online, this will have a much more serious impact.

Go back and read what I wrote in its entirety and then do it.

Why Some Businesses Fail

Why Some Businesses Fail

You may have heard the myth that half of all businesses fail within the first year, and only 5% make it through four years. According to recent figures from the Small Business Administration, a government agency created to help small businesses start and succeed, nearly two-thirds of new businesses survive past two years and only slightly over half (56%) of businesses fail in the first four years.

No matter how long you have been in business, there are valuable lessons to be learned from the successes and failures of these new business start-ups.

One of the most surprising critical success factors we can learn from businesses which succeed is, not to go into business to get rich.

Ironically, the businesses which do get rich today are the businesses which start with a passion for filling a customer need…the “getting rich” appears to follow those businesses that have a passion for serving customers. Henry Ford’s higher purpose was to make the automobile affordable for the average consumer. His assembly line brought down costs and achieved his goal.  Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs began with the sole purpose of creating a more user-friendly computer. The rest is history.

The second lesson in today’s economy is you must have a website. A well-designed website makes it easy for users to discover what you offer or do, and why you are their best choice. Do not rely on prospects finding your site by searching for what you sell. Promote your name and website so that prospects search your business name rather than searching what you sell. Inputting what you sell into a search engine will invariably reveal all of your competitors as well. Your advertising needs to create a preference for your business, your name, and your website.

What I just shared with you is from my Sound ADvice weekly marketing tips newsletter that was emailed to subscribers a few weeks ago.  You can get a free subscription by filling out the form below and soon you’ll get it once a week too.  Plus the news letter has a link to additional tips pertaining to each weeks subject.

Right now I have another tip for you that relates to what I just shared about Why Businesses Fail.

The third lesson is this. You need a marketing strategy that goes beyond the internet.  You need to invite people to visit you.  Something that builds Top Of Mind Awareness so when they have a need for what you are selling and they look online for your website, they look for your business, not your competitors. 

I have just the answer for that if you are looking for customers in metro Fort Wayne, Indiana and your ideal customers are adults, not kids. My radio station, WOWO radio of course.  Every month I work with businesses that are decades old and also start ups.  Contact me and let’s start a conversation.

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